The present invention is directed to a spin head provided to hold and spin a substrate during a process, a method of operating the spin head, and an apparatus for treating substrates with the spin head.
A spin cleaner rotates a semiconductor substrate at a predetermined speed and injects a treating solution, such as an cleaning solution or an etching solution, onto the rotated semiconductor substrate to remove foreign substances remaining on a surface of the substrate. A typical spin cleaner includes a housing, a spin head, and an injection member. In the housing, defined is a space where a substrate cleaning process is performed. The housing exhibits the shape of a top-open cup. The spin head is rotatably installed inside the housing to hold and rotate a substrate inside the housing. The injection member injects a treating solution onto a substrate rotated by means of the spin head during a process.
Generally, methods of holding a substrate using a spin head include a method of vacuum-absorbing the treated surface of a substrate to hold the substrate and a method of mechanically holding the edge of a substrate. In the mechanical holding method, means for partially chucking and unchucking the edge of a substrate is provided to hold the substrate on a spin head. The means may be a plurality of chucking pins. However, when a substrate is chucked by chucking pins during a process, the chucking pins continue to come in contact with one portion of the substrate until a substrate treating process is completed. Therefore, treating solutions used in the process remain at the portion where the chucking pins are in contact with the substrate. The remaining treating solutions are hardened or act as debris after the process and contaminate a substrate and the periphery of a system to degrade process efficiency.